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If you had a good arm, you could probably lob a football from Deadhead, the massive sculpture on a barge, to the dock by the Vancouver Maritime Museum. If you were strong enough, you might even be able to toss it onto the beach.

“We met with the Vancouver Maritime Museum director. From the research they have been doing it is in a real grey area in terms of jurisdiction.”

The uncertainty suits Deadhead perfectly in a number of ways. Built without the usual kind of plans and drawings, the wooden structure is what Bomford – who built it in collaboration with his brother Nathan and dad Jim – called improvisational architecture. I love the term and what it suggests: buildings that evolve in a more playful, spontaneous way depending on variables such as the kinds of material available and time. Deadhead is also meant to recall the squatter’s cabins and shacks of the past in places such as the Maplewood Mudflats in North Vancouver that were built in legally murky areas. My previous story on Deadhead is here.

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Ken Burton, executive director of the Vancouver Maritime Museum, said that while people may think Deadhead is moored at the Vancouver Maritime Museum, it’s not.

“Our water lease is only the dock and the gangway down to the dock,” he said.

“What happens if they’re away from our dock – as Deadhead is – becomes a jurisdictional question. The fundamental question is who owns the foreshore? Who owns the water? Who owns he land?”

If it was at low tide and Deadhead touched ground, then it would fall under the jurisdiction of the Vancouver Park Board. If it were a hazard to navigation – which it’s not – then the Coast Guard would intervene. If it was a polluting vessel – which it’s not – it would fall under the scope of Environment Canada.

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“Is it city, is it federal, is it provincial, is it the port?” he asked.

“Who actually controls it? It does get to be an interesting question. The very act of having Deadhead where it is and it’s generating that kind of discussion is remarkable.”

“If you draw a line across the water basically from Cardero Street in the West End to Kitsilano Point, west of that is Port Metro Vancouver jurisdiction,” said John Parker-Jervis, public affairs for Port Metro Vancouver.

“East of it in False Creek is city of Vancouver.”

So as far as the port is concerned, the barge with the floating art project is falls within Vancouver’s responsibility.

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But as far as the city of Vancouver is concerned, the water where Deadhead is moored is in a grey area.

“Pursuant to a crown grant from the province, the city owns certain water lots adjacent to Kitsilano Point and Heritage Harbour,” the city of Vancouver said in a statement.

“Generally speaking, the province has delegated legal authority over certain municipal matters to the city of Vancouver by way the Vancouver Charter.”

The Vancouver Charter is the provincial statute that incorporates the city of Vancouver.

“The Vancouver Charter defines the city’s legal boundaries as encompassing False Creek and a portion of Burrard Inlet adjacent to Vancouver. However, the city’s legal authority over this area is subject to Canada’s legal authority over shipping and navigation as well the legal authority vested in the province by virtue of its ownership of large portions of the seabed in such waters.”

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On Sunday, Aug. 24, Deadhead is holding an Open House from 2 to 5 pm. During that time, the ferry from the Heritage Dock to the barge will be free. A performance on the barge for an onshore audience starts at 6:30 pm for an hour. Feelin’ It is described as “variant improvised percussive structures.”

Deadhead heads to another location on Tuesday, Sept. 2.

*Inspired by squatters who built homes on land they didn’t own according to traditional legal definitions, Deadhead is moored in an area off of the Vancouver Maritime Museum that happens to be in a legally murky area. Photo: Kevin Griffin

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